This invention relates to the processing of grains and, more particularly, to an improved process especially useful for milling grain sorghum.
Grain sorghums offer a tremendous potential as a world food supply. Sorghums grow over a wide range of climate conditions. They provide a higher yield per acre than smaller cereal grains, comparable to or greater than corn. Additionally, grain sorghums have a higher protein content than corn, although less than that of hard winter wheat. However, in spite of the foregoing advantages, grain sorghums are not used widely for human consumption in the United States and other highly developed countries. This is due to the fact that flour milled by conventional processes from grain sorghums has a bitter taste from the tannic acid content of the grain. Also, the color of the conventionally processed flour makes it undesirable for baked goods. Additionally, it has been found that if a conventional roller mill is used in processing grain sorghums, the flour has a gritty aftertaste.
It would be desirable to provide a method for processing grain sorghums that overcomes those disadvantages because flour made from grain sorghums has the potential for being a superior food product. Such flour is a low gluten flour, desirable for making soft baked goods. When grain sorghum flour is blended with wheat flour, the mixture has baking qualities equivalent to soft wheat flour but at a savings in cost on the order of 10%. By controlling the ratio of sorghum flour to wheat flour, the quality of the mixture can be maintained constant, even though the quality of the individual flour may vary as a result of changing climatic conditions. Additionally, flour produced from grain sorghum is bland and accepts flavors very well, thereby reducing the amount of flavoring and sweeteners required by many recipes. Still further, grit by-products from the processing of grain sorghums can be utilized to replace corn grit in extruded food products at savings in the order of 10%. This grit in large particles can also be substituted for rice with a higher nutritional value at less than half the cost and can be precooked and reshaped to be equivalent to instant rice products. The grit products tend to hold up better than similarly prepared rice, and can be prepared in the same manner as regular rice.
Thus, with a proper processing method, grain sorghums have the potential of providing an economical food product which additionally gives the capability to develop new products and flavors.